Nesta launches interactive tool promoting RCTs

Nesta’s Innovation Growth Lab (IGL) is behind the tool which is designed to help researchers be more experimental. It tests and gathers evidence on novel approaches to innovation and business support.

The Experimentation Toolkit guides users through the development and implementation of RCTs, with tips on how to assess topic suitability and trial feasibility, and also gives practical advice on measurement and evaluation.

It includes the IGL database which shares evidence from 70 innovation and business support trials taking place worldwide.

Albert Bravo-Biosca, director of the Innovation Growth Lab, Nesta said:“Though popular in medicine and education, RCTs remain quite new to innovation policy – we’re missing a trick here. RCTs are a hugely flexible and powerful tool which can be used to make innovation and high-growth entrepreneurship policy programmes as effective as possible.”